Be Brave
by BlueLily27
Summary: For six years Lily Evans has shunned James Potter, not once giving him a chance. Now he asks her to be brave. LE x JP a little bit cliche


Okay everyone, a one shot about Lily and James. I own nothing, especially not Harry Potter. Thank you to my two betas BlackElement7 (genius number 1) and Haku-chan213 (genius number 2)

"Leave him alone!" Lily Evans shouted, her brilliant green eyes blazing and her flaming red hair whipping around her face in the wind. She relaxed a little as James Potter, the arrogant toe rag, released Severus Snape from the spell that kept him hanging by his ankle. She turned back to her friends after seeing Snape flee. However, James had other plans.

"Lily!" he called.

"I don't want to speak to you, Potter," she called back, not even bothering to turn around.

"No, Lily, wait," James called desperately. "Lily, if I don't harm Snivellus for two weeks, will you hear me out? It'll take ten minutes, Lily, please!" Lily stopped and turned around slowly. When she was finally facing James, she spoke.

"Two weeks?"

James nodded, a pleading look in his eyes. Lily considered this for a moment. She squinted and then smirked.

"You know what?" she asked. "No. Because it's not just him, Potter. You curse anyone and everyone, Potter, just for the fun of it."

"Alright, everybody. If I don't harm anybody for two weeks, will you listen to me for ten minutes?" James was just about begging now.

"It's a deal, Potter." Lily walked back to where her friends were sitting. "Won(**')**t this be fun," she thought.

James sighed. Not hurting anybody would exclude most of the best pranks. "It's worth it if it's for Lily," he thought. "I only hope it works." But it had to. It was foolproof. Then again, he had also thought that the flying, singing roses for Valentines Day were foolproof too, before he woke up the next morning with hot-pink hair. "But," James thought, "Moony never approved of my other attempts. He was the one to come up with this idea, so Lily has to like it." Remus alone seemed to know what girls appreciated and what they didn't.

It was, as James had suspected, a very long, boring two weeks. But he'd kept his promise with Lily. No one had gotten injured on his behalf. Now all he had to do was find Lily. She should be coming from Arithmancy with Remus. He'd long since memorized Lily's schedule, even going as far as making himself a copy, although his was embroidered with hearts surrounding the letters "L.E." He didn't think Lily's had anything of the sort.

After he had retraced the steps he was sure Lily would take, he finally caught up with her. She was surrounded by a group of friends, all chatting happily about the day's lesson.

"Lily," he called. The group of girls turned around, and Lily's friends all backed up, so that Lily was at the front of the group.

"What _do_ you want, Potter?" she said sighing.

"May I please speak to you privately, Lily?"

"Why are you so polite all of a sudden, Potter? What inspired this new great change?"

"You did," James said simply, staring her in the eye.

"And, if I may ask, you had six years, why be inspired just now?" Lily asked raising her eyebrows. James, however, decided that in front of Lily's friends was not the best place to answer all her questions.

"May I speak to you privately, Lily?" She shrugged her shoulders but followed him anyway, saying to her friends, "I'll be down in a couple minutes."

James led her down a flight of stairs and into a very small, empty classroom. Lily walked in behind him, closing the door as she did. She turned around and found him pacing in front of her. After a while she said,

"Nine minutes and thirty seconds, James. Potter," she said nervously, panicking at her slip. She had been referring to him as "James" in her head ever since she saw him on their last train ride to Hogwarts. The last six year he had found her before the train had even taken off and, discarding any proper greeting, said something to the effect of "Lily, will you date me?"

At her words, James stopped pacing, turning his head to look at her. He was smiling.

"Just get on with it, Potter." He sighed, nodding his head, and took a step forwards.

"Lily," he started, and then paused. "We both know that the sorting hat places people into their house according to which house they want to be in, rather than the qualities they possess. 'It is our choices, not our actions, that define who we are,'" he said, quoting their Transfiguration teacher Professor Dumbledore.

Lily nodded, a little surprised that James was being so serious. He continued, "With your brains, Lily, you could easily been sorted into Ravenclaw." Lily blushed at his comment. "When you were eleven, the sorting hat looked into your head and put you into Gryffindor. After six years, do you ever wish you were put in Ravenclaw? After six years, do you still think of yourself as a true Gryffindor?"

Lily looked at him blankly. She didn't see at all where this was going. "Um…I guess…" she said, rather uncertainly. James nodded his head in encouragement.

"Okay. Now, as a Gryffindor, if Godric Gryffindor was still alive, and he and the other three founders sorted students into houses, what do you think he'd look for in the students he chose?"

Lily straightened up. This question was easy to answer. "The sorting hat always said, Gryffindor took the brave, Slytherin took the cunning pure-bloods, Ravenclaw took the smartest, and Hufflepuff took the rest." James shook his head in admiration. How she managed to remember that with all the classes she was taking was beyond him. He did not, however, have time to marvel at the wonder of Lily's brain; his watch told him that four minutes had already past by.

"Okay. We all know that there are many different kinds of bravery, no?" Lily nodded, still unsure where James was going with this. "There's the bravery of standing up to an enemy, standing up to your friends, the bravery of taking a chance," he said, pausing for emphases. "and trying something new. Of stepping off the beaten track and leaving a trail of our own." Lily thought she saw faintly where this was going.

"For six years," he continued, "you've taken the path of shunning me, or trying to. You've stuck to that path, not once going out with me, with just me.

"Now I'm asking you to, for once in your life, take a step off that path and take one chance and maybe just spend _one_ hour with me…with just me. And…and maybe you don't like it, but at least you can say you did it, and it wasn't for lack of trying." Lily was looking into his eyes.

"You've changed, James," she said, not bothering to correct herself. James smiled. "You're…more mature." It was James' turn to blush as he stared down at his shoes.

"Remus' fault," he muttered.

"No," Lily said. James' head popped up. "Not fault!" she chided. "It's an improvement. I like it." She smiled shyly. James' look brightened.

"Oh! Well, in that case, Remus helped me." Lily laughed and looked away. When she looked back, James was biting his lip, and she knew he was having a hard time keeping himself from pressing her for an answer. With her mind made up, she said, "Two o' clock Saturday, then? Meet me out side the Common Room."

James jumped up and crushed Lily in to a hug. After a moment he realized what he was doing and immediately let go and straightened his shirt.

"I…I meant, yes, I'd love to go with you, Lily!" Lily laughed and stood up on the tops of her toes. She kissed him on the cheek, and then walked to the door. James stared, dazed, after her, his hand clutching the spot she'd kissed.

Lily stopped at the door. "Oh and James," she said, slowly turning to face him, "thanks." She looked up at him and, when she saw what he was doing, sighed and shook her head. "Here," she said, and walked back to where he was standing, put her hands on his cheeks, and kissed him full on the mouth.

By the time James had realized what Lily was doing, she had started pulling back. James took a step forward as Lily took a step back. They continued this until Lily felt her back touch the wall. She was trapped. James grinned.

"Now, Lily," he said in a slow, deep voice, "why would you end the kiss so soon?" Lily's hear was pounding loudly; she was surprised James didn't hear it.

"I…I-I."

"You obviously don't have any reason for doing it," James interrupted. Lily hung her head. "Likewise, you probably don't have any reason for me _not_ to kiss you again." She looked up, but before she had the chance to say "Yes, I do," his lips claimed hers, and they were kissing once more.

Wrapping one hand around her back and one in her hair, James made sure Lily couldn't escape. Not that she'd want to escape the sweet bliss they both felt. It made Lily go thoughtless and James was debating with himself whether he should risk running his tongue along her bottom lip. However, before he had a chance to do anything, Lily had pulled back; lack of oxygen was getting to her. After a moment, James moved to kiss her again. She put her hand on his chest, keeping him at bay.

"No, James," she said. He looked confused.

"Why no?" he asked.

"My friends," she said, still a little out of breath," are expecting me down at lunch, ten minutes from when I saw them last." James groaned, but, never the less, backed up. He looked over Lily with longing. He could not _wait_ until Saturday. But he'd have to.

Lily took one last look at James, then walked forward, and gave James a kiss. Done quickly, it was still long enough to send James' heart racing. Pulling back before he could wrap his arms around her, she ran out of the room, leaving behind a very dazed James.

James wanted more. Lily's quick kiss would not suffice. "Lily!" he roared, and then chased out of the room after her.

Lily ran down the hallway. James had chased her out of the room, giving her only a second's head start, down four flights of stairs, and all across the school. She'd only _just_ lost him, but it wouldn't last long; he'd find her soon.

Turning a sharp corner, she ran into a group of people, sending them all toppling to the ground. "Sorry," she groaned, still out of breath, as she climbed off the pile of people. It was her friends; Alice, Megan, and Carrie. "Sorry…guys. James…chase…run!" she yelled as James Potter turned the corner. Her friends exchanged quick glances; they had all noticed what Lily had called James. But, as her friends, they ran after her and James, catching up with the latter. They grabbed his arms and dragged him off.

"I'll…get…her…Saturday," he said, trying to wrestle free. "She…will…pay," he finished, and after a few minutes of fruitless attempts to free himself, he bowed to the girls' will, and allowed them to lead him back to the Gryffindor Common room.

Upon entry, they discovered that the Common room was full of sixth years. The girls dragged James into a far corner.

"What…happen," they demanded.

He grinned wickedly. "She…will…die. Revenge…shall…be…mine!" Lily's friends exchanged worried glances.

"Um…James?" Carrie ventured. "You _like_ Lily, remember? You want her to _live_. You don't want to kill her." James' evil grin widened.

"She asked for it," he said in a sing-songy voice.

"She _asked_ you to kill her?" Carrie asked skeptically. "James, what happened in the ten minutes you were with Lily to make _her_ scared of _you_, and to make _you_ want to kill _her_?" James' evil grin faded. He didn't exactly think Lily would be very happy with him if he told her friends what they had been doing. She would definitely want to be the one to tell them.

"We…um…I was…asking for help with the Defense homework," he said, hoping he sounded convincing. "You, know, the Vampire essay. I didn't understand what I should do." Lily's friends still looked disbelieving. He'd never been a good liar.

"And this would cause you to want to kill her? Usually _she's_ the one who wants to kill _you_." James opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it. He shook his head. He'd say no more.

Lily's friends, understanding what he meant, decided that Lily would most likely be found in the library. They dragged James off, pulling him by the arms. After his third attempted escape and call for help, they put a Silencing charm on him and magically bound him up. Since his ankles were tied together, his feet dragged on the floor.

People heading to and from classes stopped to watch the strange procession. James grinned and nodded at the people giving him strange looks. Since he was facing backward, he could see the entire hall.

"Ow!" he yelled as the girls turned a corner and his side was slammed into the wall. He shook his head. The only time the girls showed a small amount of mercy was when they began the descent down to the fourth floor. For this they pointed their wands at him (_Wingardium Leviosa!_) and made sure to bump his head into the ceiling every once and a while.

At the bottom of the stairs, the girls let him down, only to drag him the rest of the way to the library. Once they were there, they untied his ankles and allowed him to walk as they searched through the library for Lily. True enough to their predictions; Lily was hiding between book cases, sitting down on the floor. A book was propped against her knees, and her eyes frantically scanned its pages.

"Lily," Alice whispered, catching her attention. "C'mon." But Lily, seeing James with his hands tied together, shook her head frantically, her eyes wide. "C'mon, Lily. You don't want to end up like ole' James here, do you? We had to drag him the entire way here." Lily immediately stood up, checked out the book she was reading, and followed her friends.

They led her and James to a deserted room off of the Charms corridor. They had just crossed the threshold when Megan turned around and said "What happened? James won't tell us _anything_, and we want the dirty details."

Lily gave James a grateful look; he hadn't said anything. She'd domes some quick thinking tin the library. "Happened?" she said scornfully. "Nothing _happened_. He wanted me to tutor him. Probably, it was just some plot for him to get some time alone with me. Obviously, I said no."

"Really," Carrie said lightly. "Because James said he'd gone to ask you about the vampire essay."

Lily blinked in surprise, but quickly recovered herself. "Yeah, he did. That came after the third time I said no. He said he needed help with it, to prove his point, I guess. Needless to say it didn't work."

"And this would take a full ten minutes because…" Alice let her sentence go unfinished, a bemused look on her face. Lily opened her mouth to say something, the closed it. She could say James had begged and pleaded for a full ten minutes – it wouldn't be unlike him – but she suspected her friends would find a fault in that statement too. The three girls in front of her were all grinning.

"Lily, why don't we just show them what we were doing," James said. Lily's eyes widened and her eyebrows rose in shock.

"Show them!" she repeated in outrage. James nodded. Lily recovered herself. "I don't think they want to see-" but she was too late. James had already stepped forward and kissed her, full on the lips, in front of her friends.

Lost in the kiss, she put her hands on his cheeks, unknowingly telling her friends that James wasn't forcing her. She was kissing him back too.

Her friends let out a squeal of delight followed by high-fives all around as they noticed that outside the open door, people were stopping to stare. James' best friends, Sirius and Remus, were at the front of the pack.

"Is that-?" Sirius said his eyes wide, pointing at the kissing couple.

"Lily and James?" Megan said, finishing his sentence. "Yup. Although, it'd normally be the last couple you'd think of, wouldn't it?" Remus shook his head, his eyes as wide as Sirius', his jaw touching his chest.

At long last, the kissing couple broke apart. Lily gave James a shy smile. Everyone cheered. The green eyed girl's eyes grew wide as she saw the growing pack outside the door; everyone was crowding around the door, trying to get a better look. They all had the same questioning look in their eyes: was this _really_ happening? Why was this happening? Everyone looked from Lily to James and then back to Lily again, searching for some answer. Lily saw the question in their eyes, and knew she wouldn't have any peace until it was answered.

She opened her mouth to speak, the closed it, a semi-frightened look on her face. James spoke for her. "Lily changed her mind, everyone. Isn't it great?" the crowd cheered once more, and then began to disperse, everyone except for Lily and James' friends heading to their next class.

James turned back to face his red-headed love and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you," she said, sighing into his chest. She was able to look over his shoulder as he buried his face into her hair. Her friends were sighing blissfully at the romanticness of it, and Remus and Sirius were shaking their heads at the unbelieveableness of it. Upon seeing this, Lily's friends grew angry; striding towards the boys, they pulled them out of the room, leaving Lily and James by themselves.

They sighed contentedly, Lily into James' chest, James into her hair. James pulled back. "We should go." He checked his watch. "We've got about a minute 'til class starts."

"Okay," she sighed. They looked at each other in silence for a moment. James spoke.

"So…see you Saturday, then?" he confirmed. Lily gave him a questioning look.

"What makes you think you'll have to wait 'til Saturday to see me?" she asked coyingly. He grinned, getting what she was saying.

"Absolutely nothing, Lily darling, absolutely nothing."


End file.
